A radiographic method with an X-ray source is usually the most cost effective method for container inspection. Traditional methods include generation of an electron beam, accelerating the beam energy, decelerating the electrons in a target thereby producing an X-ray beam, forming a spatial X-ray field that illuminates a container, and analyzing the X-ray photons with a detector array.
Recently, detection systems for X-ray cargo systems that can make use of multi-energy X-ray pulses have been considered, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 8,457,274 and in WO 2012/054381. Although the X-ray sources considered in this work provide multi-energy X-ray pulses, these multi-energy X-ray pulses do not have fully controllable intra-pulse energies.
Accordingly, it would be an advance in the art to provide X-ray pulses with full control over intra-pulse energy.